Possibility
by QueenPersephoneofHades
Summary: What if Artemis hadn't been the one who 'died' in 'Depths' ? What if another was chosen instead? Sequel now up.


"Nightwing, behind you!" Artemis screamed, feeling her throat tighten slightly as the weight of what was about to happen hit her head-on. 'Keep it together,' she thought fiercely, 'This is for the good of the Team!'

She grunted in pain as she was launched away by one of Kaldur's water-hammers, her bow flying out of her hands as she landed roughly.

Nightwing spared her a glance before returning his masked eyes to Kaldur, pulling out a pair of batarangs silently.

Kaldur charged, raising one hammer high to smash him while the other morphed into a shield, prepared to deflect any attacks Nightwing had planned.

Nightwing dove under his swing, dodging it easily before swiftly lunging forward to stab Kaldur in the side. While his attention was 'occupied', Kaldur forced him back a little with his shield and morphed his hammer into a blade, and in one swift motion, 'stabbed' the black-clad vigilante right below the ribcage.

Nightwing gasped sharply, his face twisting in agony as his eyes met Kaldur's in disbelief and surprise. "You're out of your league here, birdie," Kaldur says venomously, his eyes narrowing with undisguised loathing for his former teammate.

"NIGHTWING!" Artemis screamed even louder, dragging herself to her feet as Kaldur backed up a little from Nightwing, who had begun stumbling backwards, his arms crossed over his wound while his breath rasped out of his throat in rapid, deperate gasps. Artemis dove forward, her eyes wide and frantic as her teammate fell back into her arms. "I gotcha... hang on..." she said quietly, gently lowering him to the ground as if he were made of glass.

Cradling his head in her lap, Artemis looked up at Kaldur, her eyes filling with tears as she subtley crushed the packet in her hand over where his wound was supposed to be, leaving a dark red stain on his black suit.

Kaldur calmly put his weapons back into their sheathes, not looking bothered at all after having just stabbed one of his oldest friends. He looked up at the flying rocket, his mouth straightening into a thin line of disapproval. "Move out! The mission is a failure!" he said to his henchmen behind him, but before he could reply, the rocket suddenly exploded, bits of debris flying every which way as flames engulfed the remains. Kaldur's eyes widened, then narrowed just as quickly. "We're done here," he said, turning back to the water, not even sparing a glance to where Artemis was deperately pumping on Nightwing's chest, trying to 'revive' him as quickly as possible.

Artemis heard the sound of the bioship flying overhead, and seconds later she heard Conner leap down from it and run toward her. M'gann burst out of the water, morphing back into her green humanoid form before joining Conner, who'd frozen just behind Artemis, gaping at the scene in front of him.

"I... I don't hear his heart beat," Conner said quietly, his eyes filling with shock. M'gann gasped in horror, her eyes already filling with tears.

"28...29...30!" Artemis exclaimed, pushing down on Nightwing's chest once more before leaning down and placing her mouth over his, breathing for him frantically. She repeated this action several times before leaning over his pale form, her eyes growing wide with shock and pain as she didn't hear a breath.

Slowly, she sat back on her knees, her eyes taking a distant and sorrowful look. "He's dead," she said quietly.

**Y~*~J**

**A/N: OK, before you all get started on 'this could never happen', or 'Nightwing would never go down that easily', I must make you aware; this is a 'what-if' situation, where Nightwing decided to be the one who died instead of Arty. See, I know this could never work in real life for several reasons; 1: Batman would probably figure out he's alive faster than the speed of light, 2: Nightwing is the leader of the Team, he could never leave them, and 3: Tim and Barbra might be tempted to go out and get some revenge, yada yada yada etc. This is just what could've happened. And I know Nightwing went down easy, but that was part of the plan; besides, Kaldur's goons had never seen Nightwing fight before, and Conner and M'gann didn't see the fight; therefore, nobody would realize he was faking. Does this make sense?**

**P.S. I may be tempted to write a sequel to this with everyone's reactions to this. Would anyone like to see that? Just ask in a review. :)**

**~Persephone**


End file.
